[pansinghkoder]

SF-LA

SF-Sacramento

SF-Tahoe

SF-Napa

SEA-PDX

Austin-Dallas-Houston

LA-Las Vegas-Phoenix-Tucson

And I am not talking snail Amtrak 70 mph train. I am suggesting 150 mph that runs in most Europe. What is holding US back in public transport?

[macspoofing]

>What is holding US back in public transport?

Rail freight transport.

What is holding Europe in rail freight transport? Passenger rail. You choose one or the other. Personally I think America made (or fell into) the correct decision.

[pansinghkoder]

Can you share some article to back up your facts? All I could find here is, american freight trains are longer and run over a longer distance.

: https://www.freightwaves.com/news/railroad/us-and-european-f....

After living next to train tracks in SF (for 7 yrs) and in PDX for (over 2 yrs) I can tell you that train tracks traffic is not even 10% of Euro cities like Stuttgart, Rotterdam let alone Berlin or Paris.

If traffic(freight+passenger)US is roughly equal to traffic(freight+passenger)EU then, the tracks should be equally busy no?

[likpok]

Here's something written for non-industry people: https://www.economist.com/briefing/2010/07/22/high-speed-rai...

Your article notes that rail freight costs are much lower in the US (for shippers), while profitability is high. That suggests that the US rail network is... good for freight?

I don't know about Portland, but SF has almost no freight traffic. The caltrain tracks don't go anywhere (what are you going to do with a thousand containers at 4th and King?)

[Dylan16807]

> Their owners worry that the plans will demand expensive train-control technology that freight traffic could do without.

Oh no, a control system to install on a locomotives and tracks that already costs millions of dollars, how could they afford that?

> Most of all they fret that the spending of federal money on upgrading their tracks will lead the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), the industry watchdog, to impose tough conditions on them

Are you kidding me?

These excuses are pathetic.

> Add the fact that freight trains do not stick to a regular timetable, but run variable services at short notice to meet demand, and the scope for congestion grows.

You were just bragging about having 2.5x the productivity, I would happily trade competent consumer rail for you "only" having 2x productivity.

[pansinghkoder]

Exactly so coming back to my original question: my cannot US invest in high speed train from 4th and King to Napa valley? What is holding it back?

[throwaway1777]

NIMBYs. No one in napa or Marin counties want a train.

[Dylan16807]

How so? If we prioritized passengers, then rail freight will regularly take several extra hours to get places. Would that even be a real problem? Would anything else bad happen?

[asdff]

That would be a huge problem. You'd see freeways entirely congested with trucking instead. Freeways that are congested enough as it is. We need to build a grade separated passenger rail network.

[ClumsyPilot]

This still doesnt make sence to me - the train shipping coal across the country weighs like an aircraft carrier and is about as fast.

This not a last-minute delivery, takes days to arrive, and presumably they know their material demans many days in advance. Whats a few extra hours going to do?

Is my understanding of the system wrong?

[Dylan16807]

What if we made sure trucks still cost more?

[rootusrootus]

> What is holding US back in public transport?

Various things, surely, but things like property rights and an unwillingness to accept wholesale use of eminent domain. A 150mph train requires shallow curves and therefore won't run on an existing freight right-of-way. If not for that, it would be pretty straightforward to build.

Meanwhile, a plane ride from Portland to Seattle is 30 minutes and cheaper anyway. There's no incentive to invest in high speed rail.

[pansinghkoder]

Yes there is! And that's the mindset people should change.

SEA airport is 30 mins by taxi, PDX is 45 mins away by taxi and for airport check-in you gotta arrive 1 hr early and then 30 mins travel time.

A high speed transit is just 1.5 hr train ride (city center to city center).

[umeshunni]

This is a good read on what goes wrong when trying to build HSR in the US:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_California_High-S...

[Gibbon1]

> What is holding US back in public transport?

Ideology.